


5 Times an Avenger Caught DUM-E Trying to be WALL-E (with a little help from Moose)

by itsleanneyall, MissIronAmerica (itsleanneyall)



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: 1796 Broadway-inspired, An unhealthy obsession with a movie character, Fluff, Gen, Inner Thoughts of a Robot, Obsession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-02-03 19:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1755041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsleanneyall/pseuds/itsleanneyall, https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsleanneyall/pseuds/MissIronAmerica
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tony gave DUM-E access to Netflix, he thought it would be a harmless thing to do; after all, what can a robot who doesn't sleep do when his master isn't around?</p>
<p>What he wasn't expecting was for him to find a movie about the adventures of another small robot and proceed to become heavily obsessed with him. Hilarity and fluff ensues as DUM-E attempts to become his hero.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Epilogue - The Beginning of the Obsession

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone! As you know this is my entry for 1796 Broadway's contest. This was inspired by chapter 408 when Tony explains DUM-E has an email account so that he can use Netflix. This created a really amazing image in my head of DUM-E creating a block of "trash" out of equipment, and it just blossomed from there. This was originally meant to be a 5+1 with Thor at the end but I ran out of time and found while writing this that Thor and I don't mix well together unfortunately, so sorry for that!
> 
> I'm completely unbeta'd so any mistakes are my own, and if you notice any feel free to let me know, after all I'm trying to improve as I'm still relatively new to this writing stuff!
> 
> Also I realise the chapters are all quite short but it felt wrong to put it all in one chapter... Hope you enjoy! :)

"There you go, DUM," said Tony. He placed the small controller next to him on his charging station. "Now you can go ahead and study as much as you want. Just none of that restricted stuff. Your eyes are far too innocent for that kinda thing." He patted him on his claw and walked out of the lab for the night, turning the lights off as he went.  
DUM-E grabbed the controller from where it was placed and then fumbled with it for a while before beeping in frustration. "I can control this for you if you would like?" JARVIS' voice sounded through the lab and DUM-E beeped happily in response (Yes please. Stupid human objects. Can you find the movies called "animated"? Mister Barton talks about them all the time.) "By animated I assume you mean Disney, Pixar and the like?" (Yes!) JARVIS moved from the main Netflix page to the Kids page. "Here we are. Anything that particularly interests you?" DUM-E looked over the potential films with a careful eye, before spotting one that almost screamed at him to watch. (JARVIS! That one has a name that ends like mine! And it's a robot too! Can I watch that one? Maybe there will be someone like Dad in it to look after him like he looks after me!) JARVIS made a noise something like a fond chuckle and put the movie on.  
DUM-E watched avidly as WALL-E's adventures were displayed before him on the screen. He quickly picked up the tune of the song played throughout, chirping it whenever it came on, and when WALL-E was almost crushed by the plant machine he made a noise vaguely resembling a sob. As the credits rolled, DUM-E decided he wanted to be more like WALL-E. "Which movie would you like now? Or would you rather switch off?" (Can we put WALL-E on again please?) JARVIS queued up the movie once again. And again. And again. WALL-E was played a total of 6 times that night; when Tony walked in the next morning he found DUM-E switched off with the credits rolling. If DUM-E could dream, it would have no doubt been about his new favourite film and his new idol.


	2. Natasha and the "humming"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are, the first of the 5 actual encounters! Hope you enjoy!

The references started innocently enough. Bruce was down in the lab working on something sent to him by SHIELD, Tony was with Steve (DUM-E had noticed that his Dad had spent a lot of time with the Captain, he liked him so it wasn't too bad), and DUM-E didn't know where Clint or Thor were. Natasha had just walked in and went over to Bruce, putting her hand lightly on his shoulder and kissing him on the cheek. It reminded DUM-E a little of the scene between the two humans in the scene from WALL-E. This prompted him to then start singing (well, beeping) the song from the film he so dearly loved as he continued to move about the lab. This robotic "humming" startled Natasha slightly, who looked around to find the origin of the noise. When she deduced where it was coming from, she looked to Bruce with a questioning look. "What-"  
"I don't know. Tony says he's been like this for a couple of weeks now but won't tell me where it's come from or how it's come about." It took Natasha a couple of seconds to place the music, and then she chuckled lightly. "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. I only came down to ask if you wanted some lunch?"  
"I'm fine thank you, I'll come and get something in a while." Their lips brushed together quickly before Natasha left him to his work. Before leaving the lab, she went over and patted DUM-E on his claw. "You're sounding lovely. It's a good film, isn't it?" DUM-E chirped his agreement, and Natasha smiled on her way out, leaving Bruce even more confused than he previously was.


	3. Steve and the Christmas lights

As soon as Moose and DUM-E were introduced to one another they immediately got on like a house on fire, and Tony jokingly said they were like brothers. Which DUM-E immediately took to heart.   
It was a couple of days after Christmas and the few decorations that had been put up were being taken back down by Steve and Natasha. They had boxed everything, except for one string of fairy lights that had been up. "Nat, have you seen the last string of lights? It's the only thing left..." Natasha looked around the common area in the hopes of discovering them. "Um.. Doesn't look like they're here, Cap. Have you-" She stopped her sentence abruptly because of the picture in front of her. Rolling in to the common area was DUM-E, holding one end of the lights in his claw with the other end trailing out the door. The other end was soon discovered to have Moose attached to it, with it wound around his body a couple of times before the battery pack was tucked under his collar. "I found them, Steve." Steve turned around to the strange sight and immediately ran over to Moose, a concerned look taking over his features. "DUM-E, I don't think that's safe for the dog! Come here, let me unwrap this..." Steve began to unwrap the lights from Moose's body and both the dog and the robot let out a sad whine, which was met by a small chuckle from Nat. "I'm guessing you don't know of DUM-E's obsession yet Cap?" She walked over to said robot and pulled the string of lights from his claw, before whispering to him. "I think you need to find a new film." The little robot whined once again and dipped his claw slightly as she left the room.

"What obsession?" called Steve after her. He looked at the lights and then at DUM-E with a sense of bewilderment.


	4. Tony and the Fire Extinguisher

"DUM-E I swear to God if you spray me with that thing I'll turn you into an pamphlet holder and give you over to the Museum of Natural History to put next to the front desk." The little robot chirped shortly in response to his dad's empty threat and continued to examine said object in his claw. (Now if I can just find the bit that makes it spray like his does... Aha!) DUM-E pressed the trigger of the fire extinguisher, and instead of flying backwards in the same way as his favourite movie character, he was greeted with a small hiss and no movement. In frustration he shook the canister a little. (Stupid human objects! I never have this problem when Dad gives me the attachment extinguisher!) Never one to give up on anything, DUM-E once again pressed the trigger. Once again there was no movement, but the foam inside the canister shot out... Straight at Tony.  
It was at this moment that Steve entered the lab, making the connection quickly between the foam and annoyed face on Tony and the large red cylinder in the grip of the robot. "DUM-E have you been spraying Tony again?" DUM-E beeped his confirmation and Steve went over to take the extinguisher from him, struggling with him a little before he let go. Tony turned around to face his robotic child. "Yeah he has! What the hell DUM? I'm not even using anything electrical!" The robot looked towards the extinguisher now on the floor and then moved backwards in an attempt to demonstrate what he was trying to achieve. It was not Tony who caught on, but Steve, having finally found out about DUM-E's infatuation with the Pixar movie. "Buddy, there's a problem with what you're trying to do here: gravity. It'll stop you from flying anywhere. I would've thought that someone as good with science as your dad would have known and told you?" Steve turned to the other man in the room and smirked at him.  
"Ha ha Captain Smartass, I didn't know what he was trying to achieve. He's got a point though DUM, fire extinguishers aren't gonna propel you anywhere while you're on Earth. Now, did you come down here for something or was it just to insult me?" Steve walked over to Tony and went to put his arms around him before remembering about the foam covering the older man's back. "I actually came down to see if you wanted to come up for lunch but by the looks of it you're probably gonna want a shower and a fresh set of clothes instead."  
"Do you care to join me?" Tony waggled his eyebrows suggestively, receiving an eye roll in response.  
"I'll save you a sandwich for when you're done." Steve gave him a quick kiss before exiting the lab. DUM-E rolled over to his dad who absentmindedly patted him on the claw  
"It was worth a shot, huh DUM?"


	5. Clint and the Laser

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Although it's not much I apologise in advance for Clint's potty mouth; it's this that meant I had to make the rating a Teen and Up as I don't think General really includes swearing...
> 
> Enjoy never the less!

"Consider this a sort of Christmas present, Legolas. The laser can now reach twice as far as it did before, and has night-vision capabilities for those pesky midnight missions. Just press this button here..." Tony pressed a small button on one side of Clint's bow. "...and hey presto! One top of the range laser marker for my favourite archer."  
"Thanks Tony, I'll go give it a try in the gym now."  
"No need to move that far, I've got a few targets here for you to try. I know I'm good and this is going to work flawlessly but I'd still like to cast my eye over the trial run." Tony ran over to the other side of the lab and pulled down the frame holding five targets of varying sizes from the ceiling. "You don't need me to tell you what to do. Give it a shot. Literally." Clint rolled his eyes at the bad pun and readied his first bow. He pressed the button for the laser and aimed for the centre of the largest target. Just as he was about to release the arrow he heard a high pitched squeal, followed by DUM-E racing over to the targets, trying desperately to catch the laser with his claw. "What the fuck? Tony, exactly how much time has he been spending with the dog?"  
"Oh this has nothing to do with the dog, believe me. DUM-E, get away from there or I'll let Clint shoot you straight through your claw. EVE isn't coming to visit today." DUM-E chirped sadly and moved away, Clint staring at him and Tony alternately as he wheeled off, expecting some sort of explanation but receiving none. He shook his head and aimed once again at the targets.  
"It's things like this that reinforce my belief that I live in a house of crazy people."


	6. Bruce and the Missing Equipment

At first it was small things; a pair of tweezers here, a Petri dish there, nothing that Bruce couldn't work without and couldn't be out down to his forgetfulness when it came to putting things down. It was when the third rack of empty test tubes and a Bunsen burner disappeared that he started to get a little annoyed, and went to the main trickster of the group of people living in the Tower.  
"Clint, I don't suppose you'd know anything about the fact that my equipment is slowly disappearing, would you?" Clint looked at him with an incredulous expression and threw his hands up in the air.  
"Why does everyone always assume that missing shit is my fault? Yeah I steal leftovers-" Tony who was in earshot glared at him "-but that does not mean I take other stuff! Anyway Tony blocked up the vents in the labs so I can't crawl through and I don't know the code to your lab, so no, I don't know about it."  
"What's gone missing, Brucie?"  
"So far? 8 pairs of gloves, 4 Petri dishes, tweezers, 15 pipettes, a Bunsen burner, 3 racks of test tubes, jars, flasks of various sizes, a mortar and pestle and 2 heatproof mats. And that's just from the last week and a half!" Tony stared at the island counter in front of him, muttering to himself everything that had been listed. Suddenly his head snapped up and he looked straight at the other scientist. And then began laughing, and continued to do so until he was clutching on to the side of the counter and wiping tears from his eyes, all while Bruce became increasingly frustrated. Tony saw the look on his face and sobered up. "Come down to my lab, I think it will explain everything to you." He grabbed Bruce by the arm and dragged him to the elevator, pressing the button for his lab as soon as he entered. When the doors opened Tony once again grabbed his arm and dragged him through the door of the lab and towards the robots' charging station. Before them was DUM-E, carefully placing together an intricately designed cube of equipment, consisting mostly of Bruce's equipment with a few objects of Tony's dotted throughout. The shape of the sculpture was what pieced it all together in Bruce's mind.  
"And here Bruce stands your thief. I think he's been corrupted. But it's cute, you have to admit." He turned toward DUM-E and began to disassemble the cube he had assembled, much to the despair of the robot. "You need to give these things back DUM. Stealing isn't good behaviour, and if you keep taking his things he might just Hulk out on you." DUM-E squealed in horror and rapidly ruined his creation, pushing all of Bruce's equipment towards him, receiving a pat on the claw and an exasperated sigh from Bruce.  
"Have you considered perhaps banning him from Netflix Tony? This is really starting to get out of hand..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this little series of encounters, any kudos and comments you would like to give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
> 
> P.S. I wonder if anyone caught the pattern with the characters in each scene?


End file.
